Pimp

Stars: Robert Kavanah, Danny Dyer, Gemma Chan, Billy Boyd, Martin Compston, Wil Johnson, Barbara Nedeljakova, Scarlett Alice Johnson, Susie Amy

Director: Robert Kavanah

I doubt that there are actually any English-speaking gangsters left in London's Soho today. But, if there were, they would undoubtedly look and talk a lot like Danny Dyer. Danny, however, isn't the star of this show. That's director Kavanah, who also plays the lead role of Woody, an ageing pimp having a tough time keeping tabs on the girls. At the same time, he agrees to be filmed by a TV crew for a week, in a possibly unique case of the director filming actors filming the director as actor. Hope you followed that.

Viewers of this kind of down 'n' dirty Brit crime flick will know what to expect, but the first two-thirds of the film isn't too bad, apart from Dyer, in a parody of his own established image, as the new boss of the sex 'n' tricks industry Woody's involved in. When Chinese rivals move into the picture, however, the film gets very silly very quickly. And Woody falls for a girl (Chan) who's been pinched from the triads by Dyer: a recipe for an early grave - or so it seems.

The dialogue - peppered with four-letter words is too mild a term - weakens as the film goes along. It hardly seems necessary to press the '3' button for swearing on this review; heck, it's a Danny Dyer film.

David Quinlan

UK 2009. UK Distributor: Revolver. Colour by Panalux.
86 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 1, Swearing 3.

Review date: 15 May 2010